The fish cleaning station at McKinley Marina on Milwaukee's shoreline is typically a busy place from spring through early fall.

With dozens of boats launching and returning from daily fishing excursions on Lake Michigan, the facility's water lines and grinder endure a sizable workload as trout and salmon are processed by successful anglers.

Last Saturday was no exception.

But the crew of fish cleaners assembled had a different goal than any other day of the year.

In a word: Charity.

"Here you go, here's another batch," said Reggie Hayes of Milwaukee, lifting a bag of coho salmon fillets. The orange fish flesh glowed in the afternoon light.

Jerry Pipp Jr. hustled to the corner of the stainless steel cleaning table and accepted the fish from Hayes as quickly and securely as John Kuhn had taking a handoff from Aaron Rodgers.

Pipp is warehouse manager for the Hunger Task Force, a non-profit, anti-hunger organization that distributes food to 78 pantries in Milwaukee County.

Last Saturday Pipp was at McKinley renewing a unique relationship with local anglers and volunteers. A Hunger Task Force truck sat ready to McKinley to receive a rare and welcome donation - fresh trout and salmon.

"It is absolutely awesome," Pipp said. "People don't realize how rare it is for us to get fresh fish in the pantries."

At the 2018 Brew City, the donation totaled 1,294 pounds of fillets. No bones, no heads.

All flesh of wild caught trout and salmon ready for the grill or oven.

Andrew Becker, a first mate with Jack's Charter Service in Milwaukee, shows a 25.4-pound chinook salmon caught during the 2018 Brew City Salmon Tournament.(Photo11: Jack's Charter Service)

The donation program is a partnership between Milwaukee Great Lakes Sport Fishermen LLC and the Hunger Task Force.

Led by Bob Wincek of New Berlin, the tourney organizers ask participants to donate their fish.

And the Hunger Task Force provides a network to get the locally-sourced protein into the hands of people who need it.

The Wisconsin Council of Sport Fishing Organizations assists by providing volunteers to fillet the fish. On Saturday, the crew included Hayes, Wayne Avery of Milwaukee and Ken Baker of Milwaukee.

Pipp of the Hunger Task Force called it a "phenomenal partnership."

"These fish will be in people's homes within 48 hours," Pipp said. "Never frozen, fresh protein. It's unlike any other relationship we have."

The 2018 donation from Brew City was a record, said Wincek, president of the Milwaukee chapter of Great Lakes Sport Fishermen.

The club was formed in the 1970s and has about 200 members.

Ninety-six boats fished in the tournament and brought 481 fish weighing 4,414 pounds to the scales.

Stocking cuts in recent years appear to have helped reduce the pressure on the forage base and allowed many trout and salmon to reach larger sizes.

The larger size of chinook is likely linked to stocking reductions (in 2012 and 2016) as well as two recent poor years (2013 and 2015) of natural reproduction.

The "wild' or naturally-reproduced chinook, mostly spawned in rivers in Michigan, have become a key component of the fishery over the last two decades.

In 2012, an estimated 6.8 million wild chinook smolts entered Lake Michigan, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, nearly twice as many as were stocked.

But under poorer conditions in 2013, only 1.5 million chinook were naturally produced, less than the 2.4 million stocked by in Lake Michigan and Huron.

In 2017, 67% of chinook sampled in Lake Michigan were wild, according to the USFWS mass marking study.

A preliminary check of chinook registered at Brew City showed about half of the fish were naturally-reproduced (were without coded wire tags and had adipose fins intact), Wincek said.

The fish generally appeared "fat and healthy," an observation that concurs with scientific data released earlier this year.

Different year classes of chinook salmon, all caught on the same day on an outing by Jack's Charter Service in the Lake Michigan waters east of Milwaukee, are arranged on the deck.(Photo11: Jack's Charter Service)

In March, the Lake Michigan Committee of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission announced the 2017 predator-prey ratio on Lake Michigan was 0.058, near the goal of 0.05 and well below the 0.09 calculated for 2013.

Although Wincek had a tournament to run, he seemed just as pleased over what bigger fish mean to the Hunger Task Force and patrons of local food pantries.

"We like to catch fish, don't get me wrong," Wincek said. "But there's an added level of satisfaction when we donate our catch to the Hunger Task Force."

Fishing is valuable to our city, state and nation for many reasons. The Brew City Salmon Tournament organizers and participants deserve a tip of the hat for showing us a tangible, local example.